“Bean Pastas and Lentil Sprouts” I’ve talked about the benefits of
beans, and lentils, and chickpeas. But do the benefits remain even
when they’re powdered? There are a bunch of bean
pastas on the market now, made from bean powder
instead of a wheat powder. Does it have the same
benefits as whole beans? In terms of blood sugar control, yes. No differences in blood
sugar responses were observed between whole beans, puréed beans,
and powdered beans. This study, however,
failed to show a benefit. They gave people powdered
lentils/chickpeas/peas and did not see any cholesterol benefits, for example, compared to
a potato placebo. Now conceivably, the powdering process may have altered the
properties of the fiber, but they were only giving
people 100 grams a day, which is less than half a can of beans, and previous studies that have shown significant cholesterol benefits
tended to use more than that. Another bean powder study also found no cholesterol effect,
but they were only giving 15 grams a day—that’s
just like 15 beans a day. If you do a systematic review
of all the randomized, controlled regular bean studies,
significant benefits were found more like up around 130 grams a day. In other words, at least one full serving. If you ever get sick of pulse pastas and beans that are canned and cooked, sprouting is a cheap, effective,
and simple tool for improving the nutritional quality of certain legumes. I have fawned over
lentil sprouts previously as one of the healthiest snacks,
along with kale chips and nori sheets. Anyone can make lentil sprouts at
home super easy for pennies; fresh produce year-round
on your windowsill, but any way to boost their
nutritional quality even higher? Well, as a response to
environmental stresses, plants modify their metabolism, and we may be able to
take advantage of that to modify the composition and
activity of plant foods. For example, plants are
subjected to free radicals too, which could damage their DNA
just like it damages our DNA. So, to reduce excess free radicals plants can ramp up their
antioxidant defenses, which we can then take advantage
of when we eat them. So, for instance, as a germination
technique for chickpeas, if you irradiate them with gamma rays you can boost their antioxidant defenses. But, if you don’t want to Bruce Banner your chickpeas into Hulk hummus, how about eliciting the nutritional
and antioxidant potential of lentil sprouts with
temperature stress instead? For example, what if
you took your sprouts when they were two days
old and put them in the fridge for an hour. Then you take them out and let them continue to germinate normally. Would that one hour of cold stress
make them more nutritious? Or, instead of putting them in the fridge, what if you lived in Phoenix and took them outside for an hour? Here’s what happens —
to measure the antioxidant power of lentil sprouts germinated
the whole time at room temperature —
a slow rise with time. But just that one hour
in the fridge on day two, and days later significantly
more antioxidant build-up. Same thing for an hour
at 104 degrees Fahrenheit. What about then storing
them in your fridge? Sprouts are usually consumed fresh; however, to keep them fresh
we usually stick them in the fridge. But, there hasn’t been any studies
about the effect of fridge storage on the nutritional
quality of sprouts, until… now. On days three through six you can see the phenolic phytonutrient content
of sprouted peas decline, but keep them in the fridge
and they go up instead. The same thing with mung bean sprouts, which are the typical bean sprouts, whereas in lentils… no significant difference. We should still keep them in the fridge to prevent them from spoiling, but the best way to
ensure maximum nutrition is to store them at body temperature, by eating them. Video source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQCZfALexls
